Russia increased its seaborne Urals oil exports to Asia to 50% of the total during the period October 1st to October 20th ahead of a December EU embargo on the state’s oil and products, reports Reuters, citing traders and Refinitiv Eikon data.
Bulgaria will be the only EU state allowed to continue seaborne imports beyond December 5th, while Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic will continue buying via pipeline.
Russian Urals oil shipments to Asia rose to 2.08m tonnes for the first 20 days of October, up 8% month on month. Urals loadings to India over the period were set at 1.38m tonnes, down from 1.72m tonnes in the same period of September, while supplies to China rose to 0.3m tonnes from 0.1m tonnes. The final destination of 0.3m tonnes shipping to Asia was unclear.
At the same time Russia reduced seaborne Urals supplies to EU countries by 22% to 1.1m tonnes, according to Reuters calculations.
Overall oil exports and transit from Russia’s Western ports of Primorsk, Ust-Luga and Novorossiysk over the period rose by 1% from the same period last month, reaching 5.38m tonnes.
Oil shipments to countries in Europe which did not join the sanctions or have received exemptions rose by 6% month on month. During October 1st to 20th deliveries to Bulgaria rose to 0.48m tonnes from 0.4m tonnes, while to Turkey the number rose to 0.94m tonnes from 0.88m tonnes.
India and Turkey retained their leading positions as buyers of Urals over the nearly three week period, while the growing presence of Russian companies in the freight market helped the supplies, traders said.
